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It wouldn’t be long till Mary would be his own

“Well, if it isn’t Jimmy Roberts, where have you been the last two years? I have asked people about you but no one seemed to know,” inquired Mary as she spied Jimmy at the door.

“Why—hello Mary! It sure is good to see you again. I don’t believe I have seen you since graduation night two years ago last June. I have been working for the Transport Power Company ever since I left college. Most of my work has been traveling and out of doors. I started out as a surveyor and that was the reason no one knew much about me. But now I’m an electrical engineer in the General Office. Isn’t that great? Where have you been all this time?”

Unidentified couple. Based on period costume and age of couple could be a couple much like Jimmy & Mary.

“Oh me? I worked several places the summer following my graduation but for the past eighteen months I have been working for the Company at Chicago. I am a private secretary for the General Manager and that is the reason I’m here. Here comes Mr. Walsh and I will have to go now, but I’m staying at a friend’s house, Mrs. J.W. Kenny, 642 S. Pine St. in Cleveland and I wonder if you would like to call—maybe this evening?”

After that Jimmy Roberts was a different man. Immediately after dinner he went to his room to get dressed for the evening. He sang all the while he was getting ready. It seemed as though the world was all laughter and sunshine to him.

A happy man it was that strolled down Pine St. dressed up in his very best, and his mind very rapidly turning over recollections of the afternoon’s incidents. He took the card, which Mary had given him with her address on it, to make sure of the right house.

1912 postcard view of Market Street at night, Steubenville, OH.

At half past eight he was rapping on Mrs. Kenny’s door. Mary answered the door. They talked all evening of many things that had happened since their graduation. Each one told of his or her particular incident.

That night Jimmy couldn’t sleep. Too many things were on his mind. He was so happy to think that it wouldn’t be long until Mary would be his own.

—excerpt from “Jimmy Roberts,” by Virginia HopkinsHarding Bee HivePrinted and Published Weekly by the Students of Harding Junior High SchoolSteubenville, OHJan. 22, 1903

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